From the Desk of the SGA President:
February 26, 2023 • Written by John Intoppa, Consulted by Lilah Pudlo
The last few years have been full of change and progression for the Student Government Association here at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. When the pandemic hit, SGA continued to meet and continue to work in hopes to keep the culture and community alive that has grown over the years on campus. I am excited and thankful for the chance to work with one of our phenomenal student groups, Vision Magazine, to make what we do more accessible to you all and share the progress we have done.
SGA is proud to say that our student engagement, especially with our first year students, has been up even higher than last year. So far this academic year (AY23) we have welcomed The MassArt Sewing Machine, The Sunrise Movement - MassArt, and the Garment Printing Club to the SGA as newly recognized organizations! Out of these three, two were proposed and are being run by first year students. SGA also welcomed back the JET Affinity groups! The Asian Student Association, Black Artists Union, and the Queer Artist Collective are also recognized as SGA funded groups. I am also happy to report we have 3 prospective groups lined up to be possibly newly recognized by the end of FA '22 / beginning of SP '23.
Last year we welcomed over the course of the academic year (FA'21-SP'22) 5 new groups: Bird Club (proposed and accepted at the end of SP'21) Climbing Club, Mastodon Noises, Middle Eastern Student Association, and Zine Scene.
January was a short but sweet month for SGA. In our first meeting of the year, the Student Government Association voted in a new rehauled version of our constitution. This constitution is a more relevant, accessible document that will work to continue SGA’s success on our campus. We saw some great events and moments of student success take place as well! Godine and Eventworks opened “VideoStore” which featured student artwork from all across different areas of campus in a flashback video store setting. The Illustration Department’s Senior Thesis show has decorated the campus with the wonderful work of our illustration seniors truly showing off the talent the department houses. “Verve” in the MassArt Library was unveiled as well. This new mural brings a tremendous amount of life to the library. A huge shoutout to Jenny O’Grady (BFA Illustration ‘24) for designing such a beautiful piece and to those in the Murals as Public Art class instructed by Alex Gerasev! Keep an eye out for the wonderful Academic Exhibitions our students are curating / putting on and the wonderful SAGES team for assisting and making it possible. A new exhibit in the MAAM is also up featuring the work of alumni May Stevens (‘46)
It was an honor and a privilege to represent the undergraduate students at the Inauguration of President Dr. Mary K. Grant. Welcoming her to our campus and seeing the work she has been doing has been truly amazing.
I am truly looking forward to what these next few months hold for the SGA, and thank Vision Magazine for giving this platform to help spread what we are doing in Full Council. As always, SGA Full Council meetings are open to all students in K280 from 1:30pm-3pm (remaining dates 3/22, 4/05, 4/19)
FA(Year) = Fall Semester (Year), SP(Year) = Spring Semester (Year)
